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Monday, October 28, 2013

It’s not
often that a promoted club immediately wins the title at the highest level the
next season. Still, looking all over the world, it happened 120 times until now.
In Chile, Union San Felipe is the only club who did so. Winning the second division
in 1970, and claiming the Chilean title in 1971, just ahead of the big guns. Thanks
to an old veteran of forty years old and a tall, slim striker from Uruguay.

The first years

Union San
Felipe isn’t an old soccer club. It was founded in 1956, on October 16. San Felipe
rapidly made headlines, and in 1961 their second place in the second division earned
them promotion to the topflight. They did pretty good the next years (9th,
8th, 15th, 14th, 14th and 8th)
until 1968. That year the Chilean First division was, for no good reason,
divided into two groups. One with eight teams from Santiago, called
Metropolitano. The other group consisted of ten teams from anywhere else,
called Provincial. Of both groups, the top five got into the champions group,
the other in the relegation group. Union San Felipe ended last in that last group
and was relegated to the second division. The next year, the club only managed
6th place in a mediocre season.

The fairytale starts

But then
things changed for the better. The 1970
season in the second division ended in triumph. First Union San Felipe claimed
fourth place in the Northern Group (14 rounds) and qualified for the real
league. With 36 points in 26 matches the club finished one point ahead of
Iberia and was promoted back to the highest level.

Of course, as
a newby Union San Felipe wasn’t one of the favorites for the 1971 Chilean
title. That would be Colo Colo (already 10 times champion of Chile),
Universidad de Chile (six times champion, of which five times since 1962) and
Union Espanola (two times champion in earlier days, 1943 and 1951).

The matches

Somewhat surprisingly,
the 1971 season did start well for Union San Felipe. Away at Santiago Wanderers
on April 11, they claimed a point (1-1), with Graffigna scoring the goal. After
that, Union San Felipe managed three more wins and one draw. So after five
matches, Union San Felipe was top of the table with eight points, alongside Union Calera, Union
Espanola, Deportivo Concepcion and La Serena. Colo Colo was on seven points, Universidad
de Chile (3 points) had a poor start.

In Round 6
San Felipe lost the big match at home against Union Calera (1-4), who a week
later got smashed by Colo Colo at home (1-6). So by then it was clear that everybody
could beat everybody, and it would be a close call to the end. Halfway through
October, San Felipe had collected 29 points from 25 matches, just behind
Universidad de Chile (31 points) and Colo Colo (33 points). With such experienced
opponents, it wasn’t very likely that San Felipe was thinking of the title.

But then
they made this wonderful series of eight wins in a row:

Round

Date

Match

Result

Goals scored by San Felipe

26

October 23

Colo Colo – Un. San Felipe

0-2

Henriquez, Briones

27

November 1

Un. San Felipe - Everton

2-0

Briones, Villarroel

28

November 6

La Serena – Un. San Felipe

1-2

Briones, Henriquez

29

November 14

Un. San Felipe – Un. Catolica

3-1

Nunez (2), Gaete

30

November 21

Magallanes – Un. San Felipe

1-2

Nunez, Rojas

31

November 28

Un. San Felipe - Antofagasta

3-1

Graffigna (2), Gaete

32

December 4

Concepcion – Un. San Felipe

0-1

Graffigna

33

December 12

Un. San Felipe – Lota Schwager

2-1

Graffigna, Rojas

Champion 1971

This last victory
against Lota Schwager was enough to clinch the title. Sixteen points from the
last nine matches was outstanding, Colo Colo only managed eight points. In the
end, Union San Felipe collected 46 points from 34 matches, Universidad de Chile 44,
Union Espanola 42 and Colo Colo 41.

Below is
the squad, coached by Luis Santibanez, that provided Union San Felipe with their
only Chilean championship so far. Santibanez later coached Union Espanola and won
the Chilean title three more times (1973, 1975 and 1977).

Player

Matches

Goals

Manuel Gaete

34

7

Gustavo Graffigna (Uru)

34

14

Manuel Nunez

34

15

Antonio Villarroel

34

4

Marcelo Bellavigna (Arg)

33

0

Boris Canales

32

1

Heriberto Briones

30

6

Humberto Tapia (GK)

26

0

Gaston Alarcon

24

1

Ricardo Rojas

24

9

Victor Diaz

17

0

Hernan Olmos

13

0

Jaime Ramirez

13

1

Rene Alvarez

12

0

Wilson Castillo

10

0

Salvador Galvez (GK)

8

0

Rafael Henriquez

8

2

Guillermo Miranda

3

0

Manuel Torres

2

0

With Union
San Felipe, Chile had a champion with good players, but without the really big
stars. For example, no player was selected to travel with the Chilean team to
the World Cup 1974 in West-Germany. It just
all came together those two years. Still, there were a few players who made
some extra headlines.

Manuel Gaete

* Manuel Gaete. Captain of this team, born in 1948. Left
Union San Felipe in 1973. After a year at Magellanes, he followed coach Luis Santibanez
to Union Espanola, and gained a second title in 1975. Played three matches for
the Chilean national team, against Ecuador and Portugal in 1972, and against
Argentina in late 1974. Gaete died young in 2003.

* Marcelo Bellavigna. Experienced player from Argentina,
new in this team from Nueva Chicago. Had a very promising start of his career in
1964 with Independiente, with whom he won the Copa Libertadores that year. During
that campaign the defender only played the two matches against Alianza Lima, sitting on the bench during the semifinals and the finals against Santos and Nacional Montevideo. Bellavigna
changed to Arsenal and then later Tigre, all clubs at the highest level in
Argentina. Union San Felipe was his only foreign adventure.

Jaime Ramirez

* Jaime Ramirez. With 46 caps (12 goals) for Chile, Jaime
Ramirez was by far the most experienced player of Union San Felipe. He also
took part at the World Cups of 1962 (6 matches, 2 goals) and 1966 (no matches).
Ramirez played for twelve different clubs, in Chile, Spain (Espanyol and
Granada among others) and Argentina (Racing Avellaneda). He had already been champion
of Chile in 1956 (with Colo Colo) and 1962 (Universidad de Chile), when he
started playing for Union San Felipe in 1971. Forty years old he still had a
major contribution to the success of the team, with 13 matches and 1 goal. Ramirez,
just like Gaete, died in 2003.

* Gustavo Uruguay Graffigna. Striker from Uruguay (born 1948), who
was instrumental in the last matches of the 1971 season. After the title,
Graffigna started a big adventure that left him playing all over the world.
After a year at Antofagasta, he moved to Mexico in 1972. First he had a fine
year at Pachuca, then some unproductive months at Atletico Espanol. After that,
for reasons unknown, Graffigna changed his name into Uri (derived from his
second name Uruguay) Banhoffer and went playing for Los Angeles Aztecs. In his two
NASL-years he did pretty good, scoring seven goals in 1974 and an amazing fourteen
in 1975.

Gustavo Graffigna, also known as Yuri or Uri Banhoffer

After that,
his career took a strange turn. He went for a European adventure at Dutch club
PEC Zwolle. A club he certainly did not know, but of course the Netherlands were
top of the bill in soccer those days. After changing his first name into Yuri
(Uri sounded a bit to German, people in Zwolle thought), Banhoffer adapted
pretty well to the Dutch conditions. As one of the first ever South American
players in the Netherlands, he was very popular amongst the supporters. The
biggest achievement of the club in those years was a place in the final of the
Dutch cup, in 1977. Banhoffer opened the score in that match against FC Twente,
but his header was disallowed. In the end FC Twente won, 0-3. After three years
at second level (22 goals), PEC Zwolle finally gained promotion to the highest
level. Banhoffer played 24 matches during the 1978-79 season, scoring three goals.
After that, he decided to return to soccer in Chile (his wife was Chilean). He
still lives in Valparaiso.

Aftermath

One year after
the big success, Union San Felipe escaped relegation by just two points, while a
freewheeling Colo Colo won their eleventh title. Also, San Felipe’s adventure
in the 1972 Copa Libertadores was unlucky. For starters they weren’t allowed to
play in their own stadium and had to play in Santiago. Still, they got four
points from their three home matches, but lost all their away games to Universidad
de Chile and Peruvians Alianza Lima and Universitario. This all quickly ended the

fairytale
of Union San Felipe. Nowadays, Union San Felipe relegated from the top division
in 2012, and is trying to come back this season.

Sunday, October 13, 2013

Thrashing
you opponent 5-0 or 6-0 is not usual. But sometimes it gets much, much better. Here
are a number of league matches through history which ended in glorious
victories with more than twenty goals scored. All of them at first level. Sometimes
at these matches corruption was just around the corner, or at least the result caused
suspicion. With so much doubt going on, it’s difficult to make this into a top eight. So I’ll just display these victories chronologically.

Magyar AC Budapest (Hungary), 1908

In the
early years of the Hungarian national league, MAC Budapest was one of the big
clubs. Unfortunately, they never won the championship in those years. During
the 1907-08 MAC did succeed in, just like the year before, scoring most
goals. On November 24, 1907 MAC Budapest already won 16-0 against Budapesti AK.
Four months later, the team scored 20 goals in an away match to Typográphia SC
Budapest, who lost all but one of their 16 matches.

Austria Vienna (Austria), 1941

Walter Rirsch

While
Austria was sucked into Big-Germany in those days, soccer was one of the few
joyful events in Vienna. The league continued, although it was difficult to get
eleven players. And getting them at the stadium. It is known that teams from
Vienna walked for hours through the city to play an away game. In this match in
1941, Austria Vienna’s opponent LASK from Linz, had only seven players at the kick
off. Coach Georg Braun (34 years old) decided to put his boots back on
for once, and after half an hour one spectator also played along. The other
LASK-players were travelling by train and arrived ten minutes from time, while
LASK was already trailing 0-17. With eleven on the pitch, Austria Vienna scored
another four goals to claim the biggest win ever in Austria’s top league. LASK protested,
but the result stood.

1.FC Kaiserslautern (West Germany), 1947

After the Second
World War, German soccer was divided into several districts, all called
Oberliga. In the Oberliga South-West 1.FC Kaiserslautern were unstoppable. From
1947 until 1951 the club with brothers Fritz and Ottmar Walter won five league
titles in a row. In those years victories with double digits were not uncommon for
the club. So there was nothing smelly about this 20-0 defeat of hapless FSV
Trier-Kürenz, who were relegated at the end of the season.

See for more on Kaiserslautern: http://worldwidesoccerstories.blogspot.com/2013/05/great-seasons.html

Wisla Krakow (Poland), 1947

Mieczyslaw Gracz

Just like Germany, Poland didn’t have a national league back in 1947. Clubs were
divided into three regions, with the winners of each region playing a four
match play-off. For Wisla Krakow, the 1947 league was an easy ride. They had
won matches 5-0, 16-0, 7-0 (first match against Pogon Siedlce), 7-0, 9-0, and 9-1
before they played at home against Pogon Siedlce. Their top goalscorers Miecyslaw
Gracz (34 goals that season) and Józef Kohut (31 goals) again did most of the
damage in the 21-0 victory, with old gun Artur Wozniak also scoring five. Wisla
Krakow won their group with a five point margin, but later lost the Polish championship
to Warta Poznan in the play-off.

SUBT (Dutch Antilles), 1954

When SUBT
played Jong (in English: Young) Curacao on March 14, 1954, it looked like a
normal league match. After ten minutes Bill Canword (later in life a soccer
professional at NEC Nijmegen in the Netherlands) scored the first goal from a
corner. Gomez soon made it 2-0. It all got wrong when the third goal by
Heiliger wasn’t disallowed. Jong Curacao claimed it was offside. Referee Cachi
Suarez had his doubts, linesman Van Rosburg was convinced it was a goal. After that,
Jong Curacao’s manager Van Utrecht gave orders to stop playing and let SUBT
score goal after goal. Referee Suarez knew what was going on, ended the match at
5-0 after 39 minutes, but went back on his decision. SUBT scored one goal after
another and ended the match 32-0. Normally one would blame Jong Curacao’s manager
Van Utrecht, as he had deliberately thrown the match. But newspapers in those
days all focused on the referee. A man with so little self-confidence, simply wasn’t
capable to be a referee.

Note: scoring 27 goals in 45 minutes looks like a lot,
but on October 31, 2002 Olympique de l'Emyrne from Madagascar scored 149 own
goals in 90 minutes, protesting against a late penalty against them in a
previous match. This way their rival AS Magenta won 149-0 and was crowned
champion. Olympique de l’Emyrne was heavily punished for this behavior.

FC Tevalte Tallinn (Estonia), 1994

Sergei Bragin

On May 27,
1994. FC Tevalte Tallinn played at home against Kolev Sillamäe. FC Tevalte had
been a big spender during the winter break, trying to catch up with the two
favorites for the title, Norma Tallinn and Flora Tallin. They bought three players
from Norma Tallinn, Sergei Bragin, Andrei Borissov and Eduard Vinogradov.
Opponent Kolev Sillamäe were at the bottom of the table.

After 8-0 at
halftime it all got much worse in the second half: 16 (!) more goals combined
to a 24-0 trashing.

The match
ended with Kolev’s goalkeeper Konstantin Rubkov in tears and his team
withdrawing from the league in embarrassment. Three matches later, FC Tevalte
Tallinn was expelled from the league as allegations of bribery were getting
louder. On the other hand, none of these allegations were ever backed up with
evidence. So it also could be political, trying to make life easier for the
biggest club in Estonia, Flora Tallinn.

SC Villa (Uganda), 2003

Hakim Magumba

On their
way to the away against SC Villa, the bus with Akol-players seemed to be
stopped by Villa rivals Express. They wanted Akol to forfeit this last-but two
league match of the season, giving SC Villa a 2-0 victory. Express was afraid
SC Villa would trash Akol and would win the title on goal difference. Express failed.
Some Akol-players did jump out of the bus, but nine players didn’t. This way Express’
attempt backfired; SC Villa had an easy afternoon and walloped Akol 22-1.

During the
investigation concearning this match, it got uglier by the minute. Express had
payed Akol-players not to turn up for the game, SC Villa-defender Dan Obote on
the other hand payed Akol-players to play. The Uganda FA decided to give SC
Villa a 2-0 victory.

After that,
SC Villa won 2-0 against Kinyara in a normal match. This meant Express had to
win with four or more goals against Top TV. They were doing just that, leasding
already 2-0 before halftime, when Top TV coach Sam Ssimbwa decided to a
walkout. So, the match was awarded 2-0 to Express, and SC Villa were champions
on goal difference.

Not satisfied,
the Uganda authorities started an investigation and summoned some Akol-players.
Just minutes before testifying, Akol goalkeeper Peter Agong died. But the
investigation went ahead and presented a report to the Uganda FA, the FUFA. As
the results were extremely damaging for them, he FUFA decided to put in on a
shelf and never look at it again.

Arranged match. Brong Ahofu feared relegation.
Rival Hasaacas did the same and won 19-0.

Recently,
big victories with twenty or more goals are not uncommon in smaller soccer
countries like American Samoa, Bhutan, Guam, Laos and Tonga. Honouring them, here’s one big victory from Maldives:

VB Sports Club (Maldives), 2009

Ali Ashfaq

Big
victories are no surprise in the small league of Maldives. The last double
digit victory was on July 30 of this year, when New Radiant beat AYL 10-0. Reaching
twenty goals on the other hand is uncommon, as it happened only once. Back in
2009 Kalhaidhoo ZJ had already lost matches 5-0, 7-0 and 8-1 when they met VB
Sports Club in Round 13 of the league. It ended 20-0, with Maldives’ best ever
player, Ali Ashfaq scoring twelve goals. Ashfaq just turned 28 and has already
scored more than 300 league goals, and 36 international goals as well. This
year at the South East Asian Championship Asfaq scored six against Sri Lanka
(10-0) and four against Bhutan (8-2).

Friday, October 4, 2013

Every soccer fan is familiar with international
cup competitions like the Champions League.
Nearly ninety years ago, Austrian Hugo Meisl was the first to come up
with this idea. In those days, professional soccer just started in countries
like Austria, Czechoslovakia and Hungary. Meisl wanted a knock-out tournament,
just like the national cups everybody already knew, with the champions of each
participating country.

Hugo Meisl (born
1881) thought home and away matches would be best, this way everybody had equal
chances. Of course, he needed eight teams to get a decent set up, with quarter finals,
semi finals and a final. And as Germany
and Italy did not have a national league yet, he asked the top two teams of the
four countries that did compete: Austria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary and
Yugoslavia. That last choice was a surprise. Yugoslavia didn’t play professional
soccer and had no reputation whatsoever on international level. The two clubs Hajduk
Split and BSK Belgrade were merely used to get the numbers right.

The cup was
called Mitropa Cup, derived from the German words ‘Mittel Europa’, meaning
Central Europa. The teams that participated from August 14 until the final on
November 13, were as follows:

Club

Country

Achievement in league 1927

Admira Wien

Austria

Champion 1926-1927

Rapid Wien

Austria

Third place 1926-1927

Sparta Prague

Czechoslovakia

Champions 1927

Slavia Prague

Czechoslovakia

Runner-up 1927

Ujpesti TE

Hungary

Runner-up 1926-1927

MTK Hungaria Budapest

Hungary

Third place 1926-1927

NK Hajduk Split

Yugoslavia

Champion 1927

BSK Beograd

Yugoslavia

Runner-up 1927

· * Missing
in this line-up were runner-up Brigittenauer AC (BAC) from Austria and Hungarian champion Ferencvaros, for reasons unknown.

· * The
capitol cities Vienna, Prague and Budapest all provided two clubteams, which was no surprise as those
cities were the soccer centre of their countries.

The Quarter Finals

Gyorgyo Orth (MTK Hungaria FC)

On August
14, the Mitropa Cup got on it’s way in Vienna, Prague and Belgrade. With two
clubs from Prague, Slavia played its first home match a week later. All return
matches were played on August 28. With Rapid Vienna, Slavia Prague and Hungaria
FC easily through to the next round, the matches between Sparta Prague and Admira Wacker were
the most memorable in these quarter finals. Both teams played very rough, with
injuries and even a fight in the locker room afterwards. Evzen Vesely, normally a
substitute player in the Sparta squad, had already scored the first two goals
in Sparta’s 5-1 victory in the first match. He was even more vital two weeks later, when Admira had equaled the 5-1 score after an hour. Vesely's 2-5 and 3-5 prevented Sparta from playing an extra match.

The Semi
Finals

Things were
getting closer during the semi finals. Hungaria FC and Sparta first draw 2-2 in
Budapest, with Sparta the better team. Back in Prague, Hungaria was able to
stop the Sparta attacks: 0-0. As the away goals rule wasn’t invented yet, an
extra match was needed. But Sparta Prague successfully claimed Hungaria FC’s
Kalman Konrad wasn’t allowed to play in the last game, given his previous American
adventure with Brooklyn Wanderers. So Sparta went throught to
the final.

In the
other semi final, Slavia’s goalkeeper Frantisek Planicka denied the Rapid
Vienna-attackers with great saves. Thanks to his performance, Slavia won their
home match 2-1. Back in Vienna, it was a great free kick on 1-1 from Ferdinand
Wessely that beat Planicka and made the final a clash between Austrian and Czechoslovakia, or Vienna and Prague.

The Final

Four weeks
after the semi finals, Sparta Prague and Rapid Vienna met in Prague for the first
match. It was believed the Mitropa Cup had a very strong final. Twentyfive thousand
spectators saw a nervous beginning, with Sparta leading 2-0 and 3-1. It was 3-2
at halftime, but after the break Rapid was overrun by Sparta, who scored
another three goals. With a 6-2 score, the spectators were convinced it was
over and joyously invaded the pitch.

Finalist Rapid Vienna

Two weeks later, Rapid Vienna tried the
impossible, and failed. The Austrians played unfair, especially Franz Weselik
should have been red carded. But only Antonin Perner (Sparta) was expelled from
the game, after an hour. After a 2-0 lead for Rapid, Josef Silny scored 2-1
eight minutes from time, which ended all hopes for Rapid coach Edi Bauer and
his team. Bauer (33) had placed himself in the starting eleven, but the gifted striker failed to
make an impression. During the Cup ceremony, Sparta’s captain Karel Pesek was struck
by a rock, and some two hundred policemen had to protect the Sparta Prague team from other attacks from the crowd.

In total 64 goals were scored in 14 matches, an average of more than four and a half goals per match. Janko Rodin (Hajduk Split), Kuzman Sotirovic (BSK Belgrade) and (as mentioned) Antonin Perner all were sent off.

The Mitropa Cup got off to a shaky start, as there was too much violence on the playing fields. But the prestige was big from the start. That even got better from 1929 onwards, as the Italian clubs started to participate.